Military BlogJam: Opposing Force

The reason for the very existence of the blogosphere -- beyond, of course, narcissism, boredom, a glut of time, etc. -- is to challenge the dominant narrative told by the mainstream media. Nowhere is that narrative more loathed than among the rank and file in Iraq, who complain that the mainstream media doesn't report the "good news" coming out of that country, instead focusing on the chaos, death and destruction. They argue that the one-sided reporting leads to waning morale stateside and could prompt a premature withdrawal.

The Internet has given troops a new way to speak out. Military bloggers -- milbloggers, as they're known -- write and report directly from the field, unfiltered. That makes the military nervous; it recently issued a rule mandating that all blog posts be approved by a commander first -- something that obviously isn't happening. The milblogosphere is alive and well. Here are two of its leading figures.

Hometown: Springfield, Va. Born in Rota, Spain, as a U.S. Navy brat, his family settled in Springfield when he was 7.

Though he's been bounced around the country while on active duty, he said, "Springfield is the only home I'll claim." (He has been on active duty stateside for "about three years" but, like many military bloggers, prefers not to identify where he is posted for operational security reasons.)

Age: 26, born October 29, 1980

Started blogging: October 2005.

"I think my first post was on my birthday, which is actually incredibly dorky now that I think about it," he said in an e-mail. Started under the name Officer's Club Blog, it was initially housed with a Blogspot.com domain.

After Military.com bought it, the name was changed to OPFOR, military-speak for "opposing force." The name was changed, Noonan said, because Officer's Club sounded too elite: "You may as well call it 'EnlistedPeopleDon'tComeHere.com.'"

Political leaning: Noonan calls himself a "pro-victory conservative." Liberals, he said, "won all their major battles -- woman's suffrage, the civil rights movement, equality in the workplace -- and now it seems like they are politically adrift. The main message that I hear from today's liberal base is a fierce opposition, almost hatred, for President Bush. It's not a very seductive platform."

Killer posts: Noonan cited "Prepping the Battlespace," a piece that notes similarities between Israel's bombing of Hezbollah and U.S. strikes against Iraq during the first Gulf War. Both, he argued, were cases of "prepping" the enemy for an invasion.

He thus predicted an impending Israeli invasion of Lebanon, which turned out to be true. Noonan is also proud of a post done by a blogger on OPFOR who goes by "LtCol P." In it, P compares the U.S. struggle against Al Qaeda with that of a band of European knights who fought off a Turkish force on Sept. 11, 1565.

"That post brought in so much traffic that our server went down twice," Noonan said.

Biggest blunder: "Just recently I posted a photo of an unidentified soldier holding up a sign that poked fun of an Afghani native that was smiling next to him. I've got a terribly sophomoric sense of humor sometimes, so I thought it was hilarious and posted it," he said.

His readers flipped out. Military lifers let him know that the short-term laugh could damage the whole "hearts and minds" thing. Under pressure, he took the photo down. "The reaction taught me an important lesson: Even though it's your blog, you don't always know best," he said.

Biggest dust-up: William Arkin started it. The Washington Post writer attacked troops who were speaking out publicly in support of the war and in opposition to anti-war critics, saying that it's not the military's place to question the American people. That, somehow, managed to anger folks in the military. "Naturally, we responded, and the bad blood eventually snowballed into a blog war of sorts between us and the Post," Noonan said. Arkin, a veteran himself, responded to his attackers.

"There wasn't any real resolution, but it was a hell of a good time. Arkin made for great cannon fodder," said Noonan.

Blog philosophy: "Milblogs are blurring that line between politics and the military. Now, whether or not that's healthy for the republic is subject to debate," he said, before weighing in on that debate.

"I do know that we are fighting the definitive war of our generation, a war that is going to be won or lost in America's town halls, not the battlefield. That makes it our responsibility to inject informed, expert commentary into the national discourse, irrespective of prior stoic traditions."

Editor's Note:An earlier version of this article included an error about the expression for which "OPFOR" is an acronym.